Weekly Reflection

The Transfiguration of Jesus is a transformation but of a kind we cannot fully comprehend. The scene is set with a high mountain, the appearance of Elijah and Moses and the overshadowing cloud, and is a reminder of the way God’s awesome presence was revealed in the Old Testament. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter had been

All our lives are characterized by the ups and downs of our daily experience and the range of our emotional responses to them. There is a temptation to treat Lent as a sort of liturgical low point when we concentrate primarly on the struggle and our sinfulness. But there is another possible approach, which may

The great promise of life, the desire of every human heart, was the clear concern of the people who crowded around the house where Jesus was staying in Capernaum. The great preacher was back in town, and “nobody speaks like this man”. People wanted to listen to Him. What He said was inspiring. He was

Human beings are rational animals, and our reason and our feelings, our passions, are meant to be integrated in life to reach a certain goal. For us, of course, that goal is eternal life with God. So it is right that we should have passions such as love, anger, fear, joy, sadness and desire –

In the Gospel today there is no attempt to answer the question, “Why suffering?” In other passages Jesus emphasises that it is not the consequence of sin, refuting this commonly accepted belief among His contemporaries, but more than that He does not say. When confronted with human suffering, He chooses to heal rather than philosophise.

When Jesus taught in the synagouge, His authority was derived not from the power of holding a religious office, nor from mere expertise. The authority that Jesus possessed, then and now, is from His being one with the author, the creator, of the very truth He propounded. As God creates the world by God’s word

We live in a busy world and many of us complain that we haven’t got time even for the things we consider of real importance. Yet deep down most of us are honest enough to recognize that we don’t manage our time very well and that we often waste time or procrastinate, looking for distractions.

Today we hear about a young boy, Samuel, brought up in the house of the priest Eli. He thought he heard his master calling him, but eventually he was instructed how to answer the call. It was God who was calling him, and Samuel was to reply, “Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening.” From that

St. John prepares the people for Jesus, and Jesus arrives and is baptized. It is so familiar that we run the risk of not seeing how amazing this story is. Firstly, John the Baptist has developed a big following and is an important spiritual leader, yet here he is telling the people that someone much